Colorado claimed Wandy Rodriguez and his contract off waivers yesterday, which should make it awfully weird when he takes the mound at Coors Field this afternoon to face the Rockies. Assuming they don’t work out a trade with the Astros by then, of course.

Rodriguez is scheduled to face Aaron Cook about 20 hours before tomorrow’s noon deadline to complete a deal. If the two sides can’t agree to terms, Rodriguez will be pulled back off waivers and remain in Houston.

When asked about the weird situation Rodriguez called it “hard” and “bad” and generally just seemed uneasy about facing the team he may soon be joining. As for the likelihood of a deal being reached, Steve Campbell of the Houston Chroniclereports that the Astros aren’t willing to simply let the Rockies take Rodriguez and his contract off their hands “without receiving what the team considers significant talent in return.”

I wrote yesterday that Rodriguez is underrated, because he’s consistently been a top-25 starter and his contract isn’t as huge as some might suggest, but the odds of Houston clearing his salary off the books and getting “significant talent” seems very slim. Of course, as Campbell notes they may decide to wait until the offseason when it’s possible to negotiate with 29 teams instead of one team.

With Odorizzi, the Twins finally have the front-end starter they’ve been seeking all winter. It’s a bargain deal as well, as the 27-year-old righty is under contract through 2019 and didn’t require the club to part with any of their top-shelf prospects in the trade. Odorizzi will be looking to stage a comeback in 2018 after a dismal performance with the Rays last year, during which he eked out a career-worst 4.14 ERA, 3.8 BB/9 and 8.0 SO/9 through 143 1/3 innings.

Palacios, 21, ranked no. 27 in the Twins’ system last season. He split his year between Single-A Cedar Rapids and High-A Fort Myers, raking a combined .296/.333/.454 with 13 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 539 plate appearances. He’s expected to continue developing at shortstop, though he’s also seen limited time at second and third base during his four-year career in the minors.